Ferrières and Chambrais (now Broglie), on the Charantonne, in the chief iron-producing district of Normandy. The workers of iron, in the province, were under the jurisdiction of six barons fossiers; these were the barons of Ferrières, La Forte, Fresnel, and Chaumont, the abbots of Lyre, St Wandrille, and St. Evroul. The barons of Ferrières were styled premiers barons fossiers, which shows that the forges they had charge of were esteemed the principal, or the most ancient. The popular story that Henry de Ferriers “received the surname from holding the office of master of the farriers in the invading army” is therefore only the truth – a little distorted. Whether the English branch of the family in the twelfth century bore, as the heralds say they did, Sable, six horse-shoes Argent (or the same with the tinctures reversed), or whether they bore any arms at all, is another question.